A federal judge has rejected a church’s effort to force Collier Township to let it move forward with an extensive redevelopment that would erect a new chapel and shrine on church property.
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church filed a federal lawsuit against the township in January asserting religious discrimination after Collier rejected a rezoning proposal.
The church sought a preliminary injunction to make Collier rezone land as a first step in its effort to get township approval for the project.
It claimed Collier was engaging in religious discrimination.
However, in a 13-page opinion issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand said the church failed to show the township’s conduct imposed a substantial burden on its religious exercise or that it was treated less favorably than a secular organization.
The church, she wrote, failed to meet the requirements of a preliminary injunction.
“Holy Trinity has not shown that its right to preliminary injunctive relief is ‘indisputably clear,’” Wiegand wrote.
Jeremiah Dys, an attorney with the First Liberty Institute, which represents the church, called the decision disappointing.
“Religious freedom means precious little if religious organizations can’t use their property for religious reasons,” he said. “And that’s effectively what this opinion does.”
Dys said they are likely to appeal to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
An attorney for the township declined to comment Thursday.
’Very vague’ plans
According to the lawsuit, in 2023, the church began to develop a plan to use a 40.6-acre property it owns at its cemetery in Collier.
The project, estimated to cost between $60 million and $100 million, was to include a shrine with a capacity of 1,100 people, a 300-car parking garage, an 18-room retreat center and a 225-foot tall bell tower.
However, when the church submitted its plans to the township commissioners seeking to rezone 9.4 acres, it was rejected.
The township’s director of planning, zoning and land development testified at a hearing last month that the church’s plans for the project were “very vague.”
However, the church claims that the township violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, as well as the Free Exercise and Establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Under the law, the church contended, the township cannot treat secular businesses more favorably than religious ones. It cited the nearby Carpenters Union training center, a 19-acre campus consisting of a 93,000-square-foot complex of buildings, as an example of favoritism for secular use.
But Wiegand rejected that argument.
The judge wrote that for the church to obtain a preliminary injunction, it must show its right to relief is “indisputably clear.”
The church cannot do so, she said.
“(I)t has not clearly established that defendants’ conduct imposed a substantial burden on its religious exercise, that Holy Trinity was treated on less than equal terms than a nonreligious assembly, or that the zoning ordinance at issue was not neutral or generally applicable,” Wiegand wrote.
Delayed litigation
The court also said that the church failed to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits — or that the township’s denial “constituted unconstitutional or otherwise impermissible conduct.”
Wiegand said the church failed to meet the other requirements for an injunction, as well, including that the township’s actions caused the church ”immediate and irreparable harm.”
The judge noted that the church didn’t file the federal lawsuit until more than a year after the township rejected the project.
“Holy Trinity’s delay in bringing suit in this Court, coupled with its abandonment of its state court appeal, compromises its claims of immediate and irreparable harm,” she wrote.
Wiegand also found that public interest — which includes the township carrying out its zoning ordinances — outweighs the harm alleged by the church.
As part of the injunction request, the church had asked that the township be enjoined from infringing on their religious exercise through zoning enforcement that would preclude construction of the project.
But Wiegand found that Holy Trinity’s requested relief was “broad, vague and likely to lead to immediate disputes between the parties over the township’s compliance.”